Bee Roots for 2025-06-11

The table provides clues for the roots of words in today's NY Times Spelling Bee. You're responsible for prefixes, suffixes, tense changes, plurals, doubling consonants before suffixes, and alternate spellings of roots. An exception: since Sam won't allow S, when the root contains an S, the clue may be for a plural or suffixed form. "Mice" for example. If a clue isn't self-explanatory, try googling it. The TL;DR about the site comes after the table.

Past clues are available here

 
Today's puzzle
  • Letters: O/ACKLNU
  • Words: 45
  • Points: 168
  • Pangrams: 1
Source: pngwing.com

Table content

answers coveredanswer's first letteranswer's lengthclue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...)
1A4Soon, poetically
1C5Bean source of Hershey Bars
1C8Caribbean veg dish
1C6Wheeled artillery
1C6Rapeseed oil
1C5Nikon rival, or accepted (Church) lore, noun, adverb form is a pangram
1C6Combo sex & waste cavity in non-mammals
1C5Sleeveless jacket, or espionage “… & dagger” term, noun/verb, past tense is a pangram, negated form is a pangram
1C5It tells time
1C5Make a dull hollow thumping sound (also spelled with an A or O); or hit, often in the head, past tense and gerund forms are pangrams
1C4“Dirty fuel” dug from mines; what Santa puts in your stocking if you’re bad
1C41st part of popular soda brand name
1C4Rooster, or slang for penis
1C5Hot winter drink with marshmallows, or the powder it’s made from
1C6Nest for butterfly larva, noun; or wrap up like one, verb
1C4Pepsi & RC dark brown soda flavor
1C9Irish mashed potatoes & cabbage (think large weapon that shoots balls)
1C5: (punctuation mark), or intestine
1C4Faint, stall, or break down (my car …ed out), verb; or hit, especially on the head, verb
1C4Prep or heat food
1C4“Warm” antonym, or “neat!”
1C6“Crazy” bird that pops out of a timepiece
1K5Rap on a door, hoping to be let in, verb; or run into, verb, or disparage, slang verb/noun (…, …. Who's there?)
1K5Small mound (the grassy …)
1K5Tree climbing marsupial “bear”
1K4Zen Buddhist paradoxical riddle or story for meditation, anagram of Hawaiian district or coffee grown there
1K4Small African tree with nuts that flavor Pepsi
1K4Crazy or eccentric person, NOT a chef
1L5South American grassy plain
1L4Borrowed $, noun/verb
1L5From a nearby area, or a train making all stops
1L4A door fastener with a key, noun/verb
1L4Crazy, Spanish
1L4Hang out or droop, as a dog’s tongue
1L4Direct one’s gaze toward someone or something, verb/noun
1L4“Crazy” water bird on Canada $1 coin
1N8From a nearby area, or a train making all stops
1N4Notch at the back of an arrow, noun; or fit an arrow to a bowstring, verb
1N4Barnes & Noble e-reader, or secluded corner
1N412:00, midday, 🕛
1N4In grammar, a person, place or thing
1U7Sleeveless jacket, or espionage “… & dagger” term, noun/verb, past tense is a pangram, negated form is a pangram
1U6Rooster, or slang for penis
1U6“Warm” antonym, or “neat!”
1U6A door fastener with a key, noun/verb

About this site

This site provides clues for a day's New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle. It follows in Kevin Davis' footsteps. The original set of 4,500 clues came from him, and they still make up about three quarters of the current clue set.

The "Bee Roots" approach is to provide explicit clues for root words, not every word. As logophiles, we are pretty good at putting on prefixes and suffixes, changing tense, and forming plurals (including Latin plurals!). The clues cover root words, arranged alphabetically by root word, with a count of words in the puzzle that come from each root. For example, if a puzzle includes ROAM and ROAMING, there will be a clue for ROAM and a count of 2. The root may not appear in the puzzle at all; for example, the 2021-07-23 Bee included ICED, DEICE, and DEICED. For such a puzzle, the clue would be for ICE with a word count of 3.

The Bee Roots approach involves judgement sometimes. For example, if a puzzle includes LOVE, LOVED, and LOVELY, how many roots are needed to cover them? LOVE and LOVED share the root LOVE, certainly, but LOVELY is tricky. LOVE is part of its etymology, but by now, the word means "exquisitely beautiful," which is a lot farther from the meaning of LOVE than swithcing to past tense. I'm inclined to treat LOVE and LOVELY as separate roots. You may not agree, which is fine. Another thing we logophiles share is a LOVE of arguing about words on Twitter.

A few words can have one meaning as a suffixed form and another as a stand-alone word. EVENING, for example. In those cases I will use the meaning that I think is more common.

One last complication, until another one pops up: a few roots have multiple spellings, for example LOLLYGAG and LALLYGAG. Depending on the day's letters, and maybe even the editor's whims, one or both could be in the puzzle's answer list. With such roots, you could see a word count of 2, even if there are no applicable prefixes or suffixes.

I will do my best to keep this site up to date and helpful (I hope). Check it out, and tweet feedback to @donswartwout Tweet to @donswartwout